Adjusting the pitch of reeds for



UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEicE.

CHARLES' HORST, OF NEW' ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

ADJUSIING- THE PITCII OF REEDS FOR EOLIAN ATTACI-IMENTS, &c.

Specication of Letters atent No. 4,210, dated September 2"?, 184:5.

To all who/m t may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES I-Ionsr, of the city of New Orleans andState of Louisi ana, have invented a new and useful improvement in themanner of constructing, fastening, and securing the thin metallic reedsused in Rohan attachments, seraphines, inelodeon organs, and othermusical instruments in which the tones are produced by a current of airacting upon metallic reeds; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full and exact description of the construction and operation of myinvention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making apart of this specification.

Figures l, 2, 3 and 4 are perspective elevations of the different partscomposing my improvements; the same letters refer to corresponding partsin all the figures.

rIhe nature of my invention consists in a cheap and expeditious mannerof forming the metallic reeds, above referred to, and a method ofconiining and securing them in such a manner that their tones can beraised or lowered at pleasure, by simply turning a screw attached toeach reed.

I construct my metallic reeds in the following manner viz-I take sheetsor pieces of any suitable metallic substance, and re duce them to theproper thickness for each and every reed required in an instrument, bypassing them between pressure rollers. I then prepare dies or cutters,of the sizes of all the different reeds required for an instrument, andarrange them in a machine in such a manner as to be acted upon by alever, in the usual manner of constructing similar machines for otherpurposes. I then pass the metallic sheets as before prepared, under thedies or cutters, and cut4 out the reeds by forcing them through thesheets of metal. In this manner I can manufacture reeds for the beforementioned instruments, with great speed and accuracy, each reed of thesame size and thickness, having of course, the same tone. In confiningthe reeds to be used in the before mentioned instruments, or others, Iproceed as follows: I prepare a thin metallic sliding reed plate, a (ofabout a sixteenth of an inch thick, more or less, in proportion to thesize of the reed) and make an oblong opening in its center, over thisopening I secure to the sliding reed plate, c, the metallic reed, b, toone of its ends, leaving the other end free to vibrate in the opening,by the passage of air through the same, at the end of the sliding reedplate, a, I attach the head of a screw, c, in such a manner as to turnfreely, and to move the sliding reed plate backward and forward, whenthe screw is turned in a female screw. I next prepare a case shown inFig. 3, for the reception of the sliding reed plate and reed; the groovein the case for the reception of the sliding reed plate a, is just thewidth and depth of the same, and of a little greater length, for thepurpose of allowing the reed plates (a) sliding backward and forward inthe groove. There is an opening c in the bottom of the grooveimmediately under the opening and reed,in the reed plate, a; at one endof the opening c there is a sounding post, (Z, of just the width of theopening in the sliding reed plate, a, and into which the sounding postaccurately fits; the sounding post, d, is the same height of the sidesof the case, Fig. 3, in which it is placed. At one end of the case (Fig.3) is a hole, f, cut into a female screw, into which the male screw cfits and works; between the sounding post, el, and the end of the casein which is the female screw, f, there'is a deeper cut, c', in thegroove for the sliding reed plate, for the purpose of allowing the headof screw, e, attached to the end of the same te work backward andforward in, when it is desired to vary the pitch of the reed; thesliding reed plate, a, is placed in its groove in the case, the reeduppermost; the sounding post, (l, (which is the same height of the sidesof the case) passes up into the opening in the sliding reed Jplate (a)under the reed, and presses against the same-the screw, e, working intoits corresponding female screw, f, in the end of the case. I/Vhen thesliding reed plate a, is thus arranged the cover, g, is placed over thesame and tightly screwed down; there is an opening in the cover g of thecase over the reed upon the sliding reed plate, about the saine size ofthe reed itself.

The sliding reed plate (a) should fit so accurately into the groove inits case, and the sounding plate, CZ, should lit so exactly into theopening in the sliding reed plate, a, under the reed; and bear soaccurately against the reed, that when the cover, g, is screwed downover the sliding reed plate (a) it will exclude the air entirely frombetween the sliding plate, a, and the groove and cover, and also frombetween the reed, b, and the sounding post, (Z, and cover (g). A portionof the screws, 72 7L, which fasten on the cover of the case, g, passthrough the case for the purpose of securing the same in its position inits instrument. The oper ation of my invention is as follows, when ldesire to raise the pitch or tone of a reed,

l turn the screw, e, so as to draw the slid-V ing reed plate towarditself, (or the position of the screw may be reversed) by which meansthe reed is drawn in between the sliding post (CZ) and the cover, g, andthat portion of the reed which is exposed to the air is shortened, andconsequently its tone is raised. When l wish to lower the tone of a reedl reverse the operation, and lengthen that portion of the reed exposedto the action of the air. In this manner the tone of a reed can beraised or lowered live or six semi-tones, or more if desired. lt willreadily be perceived that an instrument supplied with reeds, arrangedand secured as herein described, can be tuned, and have its pitchlowered or raised so as to chord with other instruments, with as muchease as a piano, violin, or guitar; or in other words what hasheretofore been a very imperfect instrument (in consequence of theimpossibility of changing its pitch), by my improvement in the manner ofconstructing and arranging the reeds, is made a perfect instrument; andcan hereafter take its rank as such, among other musical instruments.

Every instrument making use of metallic reeds, should be supplied withduplicate reeds, constructed in the manner herein described, orotherwise, so that when a reed gives out, another may be ready toreplace it; it will at once be perceived that neither filing or scrapingwill be necessary to bring a reed to the proper pitch, as this can beperfectly regulated by the action of the screw, e.

Reeds arranged as herein described, may be secured to the upper or lowerside of a rest as may be most convenient.

)What l claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is-The confining the thin metallic reed used in the above namedinstruments, to a sliding plate, and securing the said metallic reed andsliding plate in a case, so that the pitch of the reed may be raised orlowered by the turning of a screw attached to the sliding plate,substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described and setforth.

CHARLES HORST. lVit-nesses Z. C. Romains, T. C. Donn.

